We woke up bright and early at 6am. The the place we stayed at in the jungle had a nice view of the peak, which we hadn't been able to see before due to the clouds, but MAN it was clear this morning. At the peak you could see the tree line (where the trees stop growing because of altitude). It was SUPER rocky up top with multiple peaks and rock formations. Boy, was it high! After a nice buffet breakfast (no oatmeal :( ) we met up with a new guide, Thomas, (who was shorter than me) and Murray, a British man of 68years, at the HQ and hoped in the van to drive up 5km to the start, Timphon Gate. We jumped out of the van, our ID cards in hand to show we had a guide to the summit (its required) and Thomas handed dad and Murray a nice walking stick. We would hike 6km and gain an altitude of about 4700ft. The first 1km was a nice, steady climb up some incline and stairs. The jungle was beautiful, much reminded me of the could forest we saw in Costa Rica. We passed Carson Falls, a waterfall of about 20-25 ft right off the side of the path. Before we reached the 1.5km stop, we realized Murray and Thomas weren't wit h us anymore. We stopped and waited. Nothing. About 10 minutes later, Thomas came running up the path. Murray was "having oxygen problems" and Thomas wanted to escort him down the mountain and he would meet up with us later. I think Murray realized this was more than he bargained for and decided to turn around.
This stayed with me the rest of the day. When looking up this climb, it is referred to as the easiest highest climb in the world. Meaning if you aren't a pro, this is the highest you can get. As you will read and see photos, this doesn't mean its an easy climb. Its just the easiest when compared to the rest of the 14,000ft + + mountains in the world.
From 1.5km-4km, is was a steeper rock stair climb. The scenery was beautiful and dewy and the weather was perfect. We all paced ourselves good, as there was real no need to race to the top since there was nothing to do at the guesthouse except wait for dinner and then sleep. The last 2 km (4-6) was pretty hard. The rock steps had gotten farther apart and it was a lot steeper. There are 2 helipads in the mountain, one at Laban Rata Guesthouse and the other on the trail. We found it and took a break there. Since it was the afternoon, it was cloudy this high up the mountain so we couldn't see the magnificent views to the bottom. But, you could see the magnificent views almost to the top (the top was covered in clouds too). There was no defined tree line, just a gradual lessening of trees, as there were so many types they all stopped growing at different levels.
As we ascended, the forest went through changes also. The majority of the hike until about 4.5km was dense jungle. Around 4.5km, it changed into coniferous trees. It then changed to a landscape I call the desert look, the small shrubs and flowers all looked like something I would find in Albuquerque growing in the desert. These had the best views, since you could see over all of them during the climb. It seemed to be always dewy or raining up here, so the flowers were in bloom! The desert-like shrubs had little white flowers that made the scenery and rolling cliffs look like they were snow capped. There were wild raspberries (mountain raspberries as another guide called it), clumps of other small berries, and pink and purple trumpet flowers. There were birds flying everywhere to get to the berries and would fly very close to humans for the fruit. We had also seen only squirrels and chipmunks up to this point, and that's all we did see throughout our time in the mountain. We saw lots at one of the many rest houses that were about .5-1km apart and they were fat, from climbers feeding them.
Then an odd thing happened, after we left the desert, we were expecting the tree line and then rocks, as the photos of Laban Rata showed it to be around less to no trees, but we suddenly ended up back in more dense jungle, but lush-er than before. It was greener and had different types of plants than the other types down below. IT was also cooler here, so there must have been a band of hot hair below it or cooler air where it was. We went back into the desert scenery and with multiple promises of "only 10 more minutes!" from other guides, we finally spotted the first of around 6 guesthouses than Laban Rata hosted at about 10,800ft into the mountain.
OMGG! The "showers" we took all ended up being us splashing the little water we could handle onto ourselves.
After the rain a few moments later, the clouds started to life and we could start to get a first idea of the peak (even though later we realized we couldn't see it from where we were). Immediately from the altitude of the guesthouse and up was sheer and jagged rock faces. There were all sorts of odd sharp edges at the top. Since there was no shrubbery to get in the way, the rain water raced down the mountain and created temporary water falls into the cracks and crevices it wanted too. It was beautiful! You could follow a large trail of water from almost the top until it reached the jungle, a distance of about 3,000ft. I spent the next 30 minutes outside taking photos.
Dinner started at 430, so we were the first in line for the buffet. Before, we didn't have enough money for a snack so we were starving. We decided to save the gel packs for the summit and we didn't bring barely any money since we had all our meals, etc paid for already (and drinks/food were about 3-4x the normal price). We saw people humping large packs full of food for the restaurant and even mattresses (yes, little ladies and men carrying mattresses on their pack climbing the WHOLE distance. There was even a strap on their forehead to keep the think on their backs!!!!) so we understood the high price. All we got for free was hot water so dad made "brown sugar tea" where he poured brown sugar packets into hot water haha. Anyway, dinner was nice and we immediately went to bed at around 530-6pm. We had a wake up at 2am with a hike start at 250am, as Thomas told us when he eventually made it back up the mountain. It was in the 50s when we arrived in the afternoon, so I left with my clothes in my covers to keep them warm in anticipation of the cold morning. Of course, right after dinner it started pouring. And throughout our multiple anxious wake ups in the middle of the night, it ended up raining until about midnight!
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